1943: Pg 564 "These Times"

"My Church has already known periods of obscurantism due to a number of different things. It should not be forgotten that, if the Church, taken as an entity, is a work as perfect as her Founder; 'taken as a group of men', she presents the imperfections proper to what comes from men.

"When the Church--and I am now referring to the gathering of her high dignitaries--acted according to the dictates of My Law and My Gospel, she experienced radiant times of splendor. But woe when, placing earthly interests before those of Heaven, she contaminated herself with human passions! Woe three times over when she worshipped the Beast John speaks of--that is, political Power--and made herself its slave. The light then darkened, necessarily, into more or less obscure twilights either because of the deficiency proper to the Heads who rose to that throne by human arts or through their weakness in the face of human pressures.

"There are the times in which there are 'idol shepherds,' about whom I have already spoken--the consequence, at root, of the errors of all. For if Christians were as they should be, whether powerful or humble, abuses and intrusions would not take place, and the punishment of God, who withdraws His Light from those who have rejected it, would not be provoked.

"In the past centuries, the antipopes and schisms came from those errors, and both the former and the latter divided consciences into two opposing camps, provoking incalculable ruins in souls. In future centuries those same errors will manage to provoke Error--that is, the Abomination of God's house, the sign preceding the end of the world.

"What will it consist of? When will it occur? It is not necessary for you to know this. I tell you only that from a clergy cultivating rationalism excessively and serving political power excessively there can only come fatally, a very dark period for the Church.

"But do not fear. The prophecy of Zechariah is joined, like one ring to another, to John's. After this period of painful travail in which, persecuted by the forces of hell, the Church, like the mystical Woman John speaks of, after having fled to save herself by taking refuge in the best and losing the unworthy members in the mystical (I say mystical) flight, will give birth to the saints destined to lead her to the hour preceding the last times.

"Those who will have to gather the races around the Cross to prepare Christ's assembly will have the hand of a father and a king. Nor will any race fail to respond to the appeal, with its best children.

"I will then come, and over against all the snares and stratgems, attempts and crimes of Satan directed towards my earthly Jerusalem--the militant Church--I will set My Power for her defense.

"I will pour My Spirit upon all the redeemed of the earth. And even those who now suffer, expiating the sins of their fathers, and who are unable to find salvation because they do not dare to turn to Me will encounter peace, for, beating their breasts, they will call down--in a way quite different from that of their fathers--upon themselves that Blood already shed, which drips inexhaustibly from the members their fathers pierced. Like a fountain I will stand in the midst of My Flock, entirely reassembled, and will wash in Myself all the base actions of the past which repentance will already have begun to cancel out.

"Then, as the King of Justice and Wisdom, I will disperse the idols of false doctrines; I will purge the Earth of the false prophets who have drawn you into so many errors. I will take the place of all the doctors, all the prophets, more or less holy or more or less wicked, for the final teaching must be cleansed of imperfection, for it must prepare those who have not time for purgation and who are able to be called quickly to the tremendous review for the Last Judgment.

"These 'living rubies' of 'My Wounds' shall be a sword for the impenitent, the obstinate, and those sold to Satan and a caress for the 'little ones' who love Me as a loving father. This caress of Christ shall descend upon their weakness to fortify them, and My Hand shall carry them towards the trial in which only those who love Me with a true love withstand. A third. But this portion shall be worthy of possessing the City of Heaven, the Kingdom of God.